One Man's D-Day Story

Because of my interest in history, I find the stories and the facts about D-Day to be quite compelling. However, I know nothing of the sacrifice involved, nothing of what is was like to actually experience the moment and live through it. I am fortunate to know a man (whom I've blogged about previously) who was part of the Normandy invasion.

A little background: As part of my son's elementary school's accelerated reading program, this spring he began to bring home biography/history books of well-known Americans (Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy among others). In these books, each of these men are referred to as a "war hero". I mentioned to Parker that we knew a war hero at our church, James Self, who had participated in the D-Day invasion of the beaches of Normandy. The following Sunday, I introduced Parker to Mr. Self and we were invited over to his house ("I have some pictures he might want to see") to look at some of his photos from his World War II days. We were honored to be invited and began to look forward to our visit.

Arriving at Mr. Self's house, we headed to the dining room table to look through a photo album of his time in the U. S. Army. This is his story. Mr. Self entered the Army shortly after his high school graduation. He spent 6 weeks in the Midwest in basic training, then had another 2 weeks of training in the swamps of Louisiana. After being allowed to return home for a few brief days, he was told to report to New York City in preparation for being sent overseas. After a brief period of training in Great Britain, he soon found himself on a ship headed toward the Normandy coast of France.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, Mr. Self was aboard a ship and loaded into a landing craft. The smaller boat was lowered off the ship by crane into the chilly coastal waters. As the landing craft reached the shore, Mr. Self drove an Army Jeep into three feet of water and onto Utah Beach. Over the course of the next several hours, as gunfire flew and as men fell, Mr. Self's unit was part of the successful effort to gain control of the beachhead. In the days that followed, Mr. Self's unit arrived in Paris (he has cool black and white photos of the Eiffel Tower from 1944) after it had been liberated.

During our visit, there was one question I had to ask, somewhat reluctantly: Were you scared? With a bit of a chuckle, Mr. Self replied, "Scared? No, I wasn't scared. We just had a job to do and we did it. And if we died, we died". I did not know how to respond to that.

The highlight of our visit is the photo below. My 6 year old son and the 86 year old Mr. Self spending time together looking through the photo album from World War II. Intergenerational. The sharing of history. The showing of respect, admiration and appreciation. Parker and I are grateful for the time spent with Mr. Self but more importantly for his courage showed on D-Day and in the service of our country.

The National D-Day Museum

Recently, my family had the opportunity to travel to central Virginia and while there we visited the National D-Day Memorial (www.dday.org) in Bedford, Virginia. Bedford is the home of the Memorial as a result of its citizens having the highest per capita involvement of the soldiers involved in the Normandy Invasion. In other words, more young men from Bedford, by average, participated in D-Day than any other community in the United States.

I hope you'll take some time to check out the Memorial's website and view the photo gallery. Visiting the National D-Day Memorial proved to be a moving experience and I will post some of our photos later this week.

66th Anniversary of D-Day

Today marks the 66th anniversary of the Allied forces invasion of Normandy. The landings along the beaches of the coast of France, at the time referred to as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord, are now more commonly known as D-Day. The sheer force of those invasions is immense in nature (24,000 airborne troops; 160,000 amphibious troops; over 5000 ships) and make it the largest amphibious invasion of all-time. Allied casualty totals are estimated at approximately 10,000 men with nearly a third of those being fatal casualties. Among U.S. forces, there were over 6600 casualties with 2499 being fatal.

But there were many men who lived through that battle and lived to tell about it. I will share the story of one of those men this week. Also, recently, my family visited the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia and I will post some information and photos from that very moving experience.

Take some time this week via internet or otherwise to learn about the enormity of the D-Day invasion, the effect it had on the outcome of the war and ultimately the free world. And if you know one of the men who served in that battle, please express your appreciation to him. I do and I will.

Blogging Book Reviews

Recently, I've begun to post blog reviews of books. Some of these books are those that are provided to me from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze program. The "sneeze" idea comes from supermarketer Seth Godin (http://www.sethgodin.typepad.com/) who says ideas spread like a virus when people "sneeze" about things they care about. If you are interested in writing blog reviews of books for Thomas Nelson, simply go to http://www.booksneeze.com/ to register. It's free.

I'd encourage you to check out Godin's blog as well.

Fun on Friday

If you go to a restaurant and there is a sign that says that the restaurant offers "ice cold Coke" or "ice cold Pepsi", wouldn't that, by definition, mean that the Coke or Pepsi is frozen?

I'm amazed at the effectiveness of Chick-fil-A's marketing campaign where the company is giving away millions of its new Spicy Chicken Sandwich in advance of the sandwich's menu debut. Some companies just get it.

Isn't it frustrating when you mow your grass one evening and then the next evening it looks like you need to mow it again?

Great Quote Thursday

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. - Henry Ford

Elijah- Out of Nowhere

On Sunday, we began a study of the life of Elijah, the Old Testament prophet.

As I Kings chapter 16 ends, we're introduced to King Ahab in verse 33 as a wicked king who "did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him". It is this culture and environment that Elijah walks into when he arrives on the scene at the beginning of I Kings 17. At the risk of his own life, Elijah has been chosen by God to confront King Ahab. And the first thing we learn about Elijah is that he is a Tishbite or from the land of Tish. In effect, Elijah came out of nowhere because Tish is a small town, not a well-known destination in Scripture. And therein lies a lesson for all of us.

Here's The Point: It doesn't matter where you're from, God can use you. Your hometown, your history and your family heritage don't matter when you commit your heart and life to God. Just as with King David in I Samuel chapter 16, we're reminded again that "the Lord looks at the heart".